Chapter 3.02 BEST LAID PLANS

Streets of Chicago, IL

Friday, July 11th

Kyle, Shaun, Julie, and the two; Robert, and Jack, made their way to the hospital a block away. The group had found another store filled with clothing and camping gear on the way, so they sent Kenny back to base to gather others to loot the place.

“It’s kinda eerie walking around Chicago with no vehicles or people insight,” said Shaun.

“Yea, it is. It’s crazy how they got the outsides of every building correct. Though I guess with the help of AIs, it wasn’t that hard to do,” responded Kyle.

The group kept chatting until they made their way closer to the large five-story building. When they crossed into the intersection close to the hospital, they were stopped by a message flashing into their vision.

Entering Terminally Chi Territory

You may not enter another’s territory at this time.

“Is this a cancer hospital? That is all kinds of dark,” said Julie.

Kyle and company waited around for a few minutes but didn’t spot anyone. They figured the group who claimed the hospital wasn’t notified of their presence.

“Ok, let’s head back. We have less than an hour before the event starts,” said Kyle.

The group walked back towards the NeXus, taking a different set of streets. After the fourth block, they came across a gas station. From a distance, there looked to be items on the shelves. After a quick check on time, they decided to check it out. Inside they found a little bit of everything among the five shelves. Julie found a large bag behind the main counter and started filling it with small medical kits from a back shelf.

Kyle walked up to a carousel of postcards and brochures. Among them were some maps of the area. He grabbed those and wedged them into one of his back pockets. Finding more bags behind the counter, he and the others began looting as much of the food, drinks, and other odd items as they could. With two full bags each, they headed back to base.

***

“How many we up to, Jonathan?” asked Shaun Sr.

“We’re at two-hundred-sixteen. A handful of new people are from the area and followed our guys back to join the group. Benji is still sorting everyone into teams. We don’t know everyone’s skills or the type of playstyle they are going for yet,” replied Jonathan.

“That’s fine. We got all day to figure things out. Everyone should be back soon.”

Shaun Sr. glanced at the clock and timer at his vision’s top right. They had a little under ten minutes left before the event started. He looked over at the entrance just in time to see Kyle and his son, along with his girlfriend coming back. Each of them carried a pair of large bags. Spotting him and Jonathan, they made a beeline over to them.

“Dad, we got some medical kits and food. We went up to the hospital west of here, but someone already claimed it as their territory. The system wouldn’t allow us near the place.”

“Alright, we’ll try and make contact with them after the event is over.”

“Here, I found five of these. I’ll give you the four extra,” Kyle said, handing Senior the maps.

“Did anyone find any kind of pens or markers?!” Senior shouted.

“Here, we got a ton of art supplies,” a young teenage girl said.

She walked up to the makeshift desk Jonathan had made and dumped a handful of markers on it.

“Thank you, Sarah,” said Senior.

Kyle walked over to the makeshift desk and picked up one of the thin black markers. He then began making marks on the map he unfolded on the desk. He marked the gas station, convenience store, and camping gear outlet with a plus sign inside a circle. Kyle then marked the shack down the block with a $ sign. Next, he outlined the hospital and wrote in Terminally Chi. Seeing what Kyle was doing, Senior unfolded one of the other maps and copied everything Kyle had marked.

“Attention! Anyone who has found a place to loot, or someone else’s territory come over here and show us on the map,” shouted Shaun Sr.

Multiple people came over and showed them where their groups had found places of interest. They had eleven lootable buildings, three shady-looking market shacks, and five other claimed territories marked on both maps in minutes.

“Ok, when the event is over, we need everyone to head southwest to the sporting goods store and loot the rest of the baseball bats and golf clubs that Zack’s group found,” Senior said.

The group discussed the next areas to loot until everyone heard the familiar chime. When the countdown hit zero, the flash of a message entered their visions.

Attention Players!

Region USA.2 has 45,762 groups along with their territories. Over the last four hours, members of each group have been infected in different ways. The first event is to eliminate the members of your group who have been infected before they can spread the outbreak further. Groups who eliminate everyone infected will be rewarded with a cache of weapons. For those who do not, their territory and group will be eliminated.

Before anyone could say a word, another message flashed.

Attention NeXus Group!

Three of your members have been infected. The outbreak has already spread to a fourth. You have two hours to eliminate those infected or remove them from your territory. Those who have been infected, if you are eliminated, you will receive a reward when you spawn tomorrow.

Everyone went silent. They began to look around, trying to figure out who had been infected.

“Ok, everyone, listen up. Does anyone feel sick? Did anything happen out of the ordinary? Have you been cut, scrapped, heaven forbid, bitten?” said Shaun Sr.

Julie, who was now crying, and an older guy Kyle didn’t know raised their hands.

“A cat scratched me outside earlier,” Julia said, showing her arm, which now had thin black lines around the affected area.

The older gentleman who had raised his hand walked up to the group and removed his shirt. On his side was a small cut, but the same black lines expanded out from it.

“Tried to jump a fence and got a scrape,” the older man said.

“I’m sorry, guys, but I don’t want to kill one of our own. I’d like you two to leave on your own and get as far away as possible. Try and come back once you spawn tomorrow.” Senior said calmly.

“I’m going with her, Dad. If it spreads that easy, I may be the one who got it passed to,” said Junior.

Senior nodded his head to his son.

“Try and get back here as soon as you can, all of you.”

“Alright, who else? I know it sucks, but even if you think there might be the smallest of chances, please come forward.”

A few minutes passed by, small groups started talking in hushed whispers. One of the groups in the back began arguing. Then it quickly turned into a shouting match.

“Stanley here got cut by glass!” one of the group shouted.

“I’m fine, look no back lines!” Stanley shouted back.

Senior and Kyle walked back to the group and inspected his arm. There was a shallow cut but no black lines.

“We don’t know if that's an indicator or not. We really can’t take the chance. Please leave the territory, walk with Junior and the others a couple of blocks away. After the event ends, if you’re feeling ok then, come back.”

“Whatever, man,” said Stanley stomping towards the door.

“Anyone else?!” shouted Senior.

No one else said anything. Shaun and Julie hugged his dad then began to walk outside as well. The older gentleman followed suit. Everyone began to relax and talk, but Kyle could see people darting their eyes around, waiting for something terrible to happen. At the thirty-minute mark, everyone heard the same chime and got a flash in their vision as a new message appeared.

Attention NeXus Group!

You currently have one infected member within your territory. Eliminate all infected before the time limit.

Everyone now had a thirty-minute timer counting down at the top right of their vision under the time. Next to the timer was a red [1].

“What are we going to do, Shaun,” Kyle said.

“Is there anyone missing? Everyone stand in groups of ten, quickly!” shouted Senior.

Everyone started moving quickly, and soon there were twenty-one groups spread out in the large room.

“We only have eight in our group,” shouted a young man to Shaun and Kyle’s left.

“That’s two-hundred-ten. We are missing two people,” said Jonathan from his group.

“Alright, everyone, stay with your group. Look over one another for any cuts or marks, explicitly with black lines. Jonathan, once you look over one another, help me and Kyle search for the two we are missing.”

Kyle was out the door in a moment and began searching the street in front of the cafe. Not seeing anyone, he walked around the old laundromat part of the cafe and then headed into the alley between the two buildings to reach the cafe’s back area. As Kyle got close to the alley, the red [1] became a [2] with a ‘ping.’ With a new sense of urgency, Kyle began to run towards the back. Coming around the corner, he heard the grunts first.

Looking around while slowly walking towards the noise, he spotted someone kneeling behind the dumpster to the left of the NeXus s back door. Before he could turn around and go back towards the front to warn Senior, Jonathan came crashing through the back door and spotted Kyle.

“Hey Kyle, have you found them yet? We think we found the last infected insi…”

Before Jonathan could finish the sentence, the man standing over the now visible bloody body jumped up, turned around, and ponced on the unaware Jonathan. Kyle could see the man, who had been probably in his early twenties, had slightly red-glowing eyes. Nothing else about the guy screamed Zombie, but Kyle knew. The Zombie wrapped its hands around Jonathan from behind and bit down on his shoulder. Jonathan let out a scream as blood pumped a foot in the air several times before suddenly stopping.

‘Ping’ [3].

Kyle backed away in horror. He hadn’t expected such gore. The pain in Jonathan’s face looked real. Kyle was brought out of his horror when the body besides the dumpster began to move as well. Then a group of the others came rushing through the door.

“We heard a scream. What’s going on?”

Not seeing Jonathan in the Zombie’s grip, feet away from them, the group still looked around for anything amiss. The Zombie let Jonathan go, his body falling to the ground. The group, now seeing the body fall from the grip of the guy in front of them, screamed and tried to run back through the door all at the same time.

Kyle watched as the Zombie who had bitten Jonathan jumped onto a younger woman, biting into her neck and knocking both of them to the ground.

‘Ping’ [4].

The rest of the group managed to get through the door. However, not one of them had bothered to close it behind them. Kyle watched as the Zombie near the dumpster walked through the door into the cafe. In the meantime, Kyle walked slowly backward, keeping his eyes on the Zombie still working on the woman in the alley.

‘Ping’ [5].

Kyle darted towards the street. Coming to the end of the cafe’s alley, he stopped, then peeked around the corner at the cafe’s entrance. Not seeing anyone, he ran to the door and opened it. Once inside, he saw a group had formed. They all held bats, golf clubs, and other blunt instruments. They were beating on the two Zombies who had followed the other group inside the back door.

For a few moments, it looked like the makeshift group of defenders were pushing the Zombies back. That’s when one of the survivors from the back started to twitch, then leap onto the back of one of the fighters. He quickly bit into the guy’s shoulder while raking his hand across the face of the fighter next to them.

‘Ping’ [6].

‘Ping’ [7].

Now realizing their backline was under attack, the fighters split their attention. This proved further fatal, as one of the Zombies was able to get up and lunge at a young teen to the side. Kyle saw the Zombie on the floor had been killed, and a glowing blue orb was now over its body.

Yea, I’m not going anywhere near that to check it out.

Kyle rushed to grab a golf club from the looted goods pile. Looking around, he spotted Senior with a group of four trying to leave the cafe building. Turning back to the fight and seeing it going south, he decided to catch up and follow them.

Kyle quickly exited onto the street, his nine iron in hand, to find Senior and another person had already started running down the road. One of their group lay on the ground with another fussing over them.

Giving the two a wide berth, he circled them to see what he had suspected. The one fussing over the body was a Zombie. One of the ones from the back, Kyle guessed. Kyle made a ‘scuff’ noise with his shoe, and the Zombie looked up at him.

I’m out of here.

Kyle turned and ran west down the street. He thought that his first stop should be the camping goods store. Then he needed to figure out what to do after the event ended.

“Hey Bob, you there, bud?”

[I am. A nasty bit of business back there.]

“Ok, good. So you can see everything in the game?”

[I can, what’s up?]

“Need you to make a mental copy of the map we made, in case I lose it.”

[Already done.]

“Thank you.”

Kyle pictured the cat shrugging in his mind and chuckled.

‘Ping’ [8].

‘Ping’ [9].

‘Ping’ [10].

‘Ping’ [11].

It took Kyle almost ten minutes to reach the camping store. Looking around and not seeing anyone from the windows, he quietly ducked inside. Finding a large hiking backpack, he filled it with the limited supplies he could find. He made sure to grab a tent and sleeping bag as well. Strapping the bag to his back, he went into the back room and found a ladder on the back wall leading to the roof. Kyle quickly scaled the ladder, opened the hatch, and climbed onto the sporting goods store’s top, thankful to find it empty of Zombies and people.

Closing the hatch behind himself, he realized there was no lock on this side. He grabbed a couple of cinder blocks from a pile and laid them over the hatch.

‘Ping’ [12].

“Well, fuck.”

Kyle waited on the roof as the timer ticked away. The ‘pings’ began coming faster, steadying to several every minute, then suddenly they stopped. When the counter finally hit zero, Kyle’s display listed seventy-eight infected. Two messages then appeared back to back.

Attention NeXus Group!

Your group has failed to protect its territory. NeXus Group has been dissolved.

Attention Players!

Congratulations, region USA.2, for having 21,912 groups left. You are second behind the region RUS.4.

Outbreak is now live. Those with territories may begin to upgrade them and prepare to defend. Those without a group may join others or remain alone. You have 18 hours left to explore and loot before those who aren’t playing awake as Zombies.

Kyle started to consider his next steps, but then pushed those thoughts to the side. He had the rest of the play session to explore. But first, Kyle needed to get the minimum of four hours of daily rest as required by the game. He pulled out the sleeping bag, laid it out on the roof, and then climbed in.

“Bob, wake me up in four hours, please.”

[Alarm has been set.]